Stake puller

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for pulling tent stakes from the ground consists of a hook member with a triangular shaped opening therethrough adaptable for hooking to the projecting tab on a metal tent stake or for fitting around a wood tent stake. The hook member is pivotally attached to a lever arm such as the handle of a hammer or mallet.

United States Patent 1191 Verlander Feb. 25, 1975 [54] STAKE PULLER 1,916,463 7/1933 Carrel 254/132 [76] Inventor: Donald M. Verlander, 314 Saipan,

S A i T 78221 Primary Examiner-Al Lawrence Sm1th Assistant E.\-am1'ner-Roscoe M Parker [22] Flledz- 1973 Attorney, Agent, or FirmD0nald R. Comuzzi; Ted D. [21] App]. No.: 393,453 Lee [52] US. Cl. 7/8.l R, 254/132 [57] ABSTRACT 2 gl y g g g An apparatus for pulling tent stakes from the ground 1 0 care 9 g 1 consists of a hook member with a triangular shaped opening therebthrough adaptable forkhookirfig t? the projecting ta on a meta tent sta e or or lttmg [56] References cued around a wood tent stake. The hook member is pivot- UNITED STATES PATENTS 1 ally attached to a lever arm such as the handle of a l78,527 6/1876 Howell 254/132 hammer 0r mallet, 373,663 11/1887 Hyde 254/l32 785,80] 3/1905 Davis et al. 254/132 4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures STAKE PULLER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an apparatus for use in pullan apparatus which can be used with any type of tent stake whether metal stakes with projecting tabs or plain wood stakes without tabs.

Camping in tents has always been a favorite hobby of many people, both young and old. It has also been a way of life for long periods of time for many military personnel. With increasing motel cost, even more families are turning to camping as a means of providing their families a vacation.

Tent trailers have become increasingly popular, however, the regular canvas tent continues to be a favorite of the majority of people. Anyone who has ever taken down a tent has experienced difficulty in removing the tent stakes from the ground. This is understandable because the stakes must be driven into the ground sufficiently to anchor the tent. As the available size of tents becomes increasingly larger, the tent stakes must also become larger and longer, making the task of removal even more difficult.

The only known way to remove a tent stake from the ground is either by pulling it with the hands or banging the stake back and forth with a hammer until it is loose enough to be removed from the ground.

A search of the prior art has not revealed any type of apparatus that is susceptible for use in removing tent stakes. Various types of nail extractors have been devised whereby the hammer handle acts as the lever for applying the pulling force to the nail, however none of these are adaptable for use with a tent stake. The closest known prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 73,330; however, the apparatus disclosed therein is not suitable for stake pulling. The device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 529,155 utilizes a handle as a lever for pulling, however, this too is completely unlike applicants invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an apparatus that is designed specifically for use in removing tent stakes from the ground. It eliminates the difficult problems previously encountered and is very simple and easy to use. A stake engaging hook member is pivotally connected to a lever arm such as a hammer handle or the like. The member has an opening through which the projecting tab on a metal stake can protrude. The lever arm is lifted, with the hammer head acting'as the pivot point, thus pulling the stake from the ground.

The opening in the hook member is preferably triangular with inwardly tapering knife edges. The opening is large enough for a wood tent stake to extend therethrough. An upward pull on the hook member will cause the knife edges of the triangular opening to frictionally engage the wood stake to pull the stake from the ground.

It is preferred that the hook member have a substantially wedge shaped configuration so the point of the wedge may be used to penetrate the ground adjacent a stake in instances where the projecting tab has been driven below the surface of the ground. The wedge shaped hook member can be driven into a tree and used as a hanger bracket until it is to be used to remove the tent stakes.

In a preferred embodiment of the apparatus, a special long handled rubber mallet is used as the lever arm with the rubber mallet acting as the pivot point. The mallet may be used to drive the stakes into the ground.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of preferred embodiments of the invention showing the stake puller attached to a long handled rubber mallet;

FIG. 2 is a vertical side view of the apparatus;

FIG. 3 is a vertical front view of the apparatus of this invention;

FIG. 4 is a cross section taken along lines 4-4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view showing the stake puller being used to remove a metal stake with a projecting hook from the ground;

FIG. 6 is a view showing the stake puller being used to remove a wooden stake from the ground.

DESCRIPTION OFTHE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing and particularly FIG. 1, a stake puller 2 is shown attached to the handle 3 of a rubber mallet 4. The stake puller consists of a generally wedge shaped member 5 having a triangular shaped opening 9 therethrough. The hook member 5 consists of downwardly converging legs 8 and 8 which converge to a point 9. The legs 8 and 8 are connected across the top by a cross member 6. The cross member 6 has an upwardly extending tab 7. A clamp ring 12 is connected to the tab 7 by means of bolt 13 extending through matching holes in the tab 7 and the clamp ring 12. The bolt 13 is held with a nut 14.

As can be seen in FIG. I, the clamp ring 12 may be positioned around a lever such as the handle 3 and clamped thereto. It is preferable that the wedge shaped hook member be loosely connected to the clamp ring 12 so that it can pivot about the bolt member 13. It is preferable that the clamp ring 12 be loosely connected around the handle 3 so that it may be slid along the handle to any desired position, which position will change depending upon the particular circumstances of each individual stake to be removed.

As can be seen from FIG. 5, the invention is being used to remove a stake 16 having a projecting tab 17. The tab 17 projects through the opening 9 in the hook member 5 and the stake is lifted in an obvious manner.

In FIG. 6, a stake 18 which may be a wood stake without projecting tabs is disclosed. The hook member 5 is placed over the stake 18 with the stake extending through the opening 9. Due to the triangular configuration of the opening 9, the hook member will frictionally engage the stake 18 to enable the stake to be pulled from the ground with an upward movement of the lever arm 3.

The hook member is generally wedge shaped and the outside periphery of the downwardly converging legs 8 and 8' are knife edged as can be seen in FIG. 4. The legs 8 and 8' are also tapered downwardly to the point 9 as can be seen in FIG. 2. The downwardly tapering knife edged configuration will enable the hook member 5 to be easily inserted into the ground adjacent the stake in the event the projecting tab 17 is driven below the surface of the ground. The hook member 5 can also be used for other purposes due to its particular configuration as for example, it may be driven into a tree and used as a hanging bracket for lanterns and the like when not being used for removing stakes.

Having thus described the preferred embodiment of the invention it should be understood that numerous structural modifications and adaptations may be resorted to without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for removing tent stakes from the ground consisting of a hook member with means for connecting the hook member to a tent stake, said hook member also having connecting means to connect the hook member to a lever arm, said hook member having an opening therethrough, said opening being of generally triangular configuration and large enough for a tent stake to extend therethrough, said hook member having a generally wedge shaped external configuartion with downwardly converging knife edged sides terminating in a pointed tip,

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the hook member consists of a pair of downwardly converging legs connected at their top ends by a cross member and connecting to each other at their lower ends, said downwardly converging legs having a knife edge along their outside periphery and converging to a pointed tip.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the connecting means for connecting the hook member to a lever arm consists of a clamping ring pivotally connected to the hook member. 4

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the clamp ring is connected around the handle of a hammer. 

1. An apparatus for removing tent stakes from the ground consisting of a hook member with means for connecting the hook member to a tent stake, said hook member also having connecting means to connect the hook member to a lever arm, said hook member having an opening therethrough, said opening being of generally triangular configuration and large enough for a tent stake to extend therEthrough, said hook member having a generally wedge shaped external configuartion with downwardly converging knife edged sides terminating in a pointed tip.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the hook member consists of a pair of downwardly converging legs connected at their top ends by a cross member and connecting to each other at their lower ends, said downwardly converging legs having a knife edge along their outside periphery and converging to a pointed tip.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the connecting means for connecting the hook member to a lever arm consists of a clamping ring pivotally connected to the hook member.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the clamp ring is connected around the handle of a hammer. 